Aerik Von

Why are you so confident that life on earth and these forms of morality are so significant?

...and please...explain the purpose of each living mold cell in the world. Did God create the misquito for any real reason?

Please...for once answer with detailed answers on Gods plan!

WJ

Von,

Well, firstly, it is not possible that you could live my life and get inside my head to have realized this sense of confidence.

Secondly, there certainly are some reasons why, say, that there is something beyond metaphysical naturalism. Kant has been a great help here, as well as the basic problems relative to the arguments concerning the meaning of existence (Existentialism) and Being.

For instance, let me, for a moment, change one word from your statement, "...that life on earth and these forms of [existence] are so significant?
Self-consciousness and conscience Beings, as evolved with higher levels of intellect confers no biological advantage. We talked earlier about the ability to compute the laws of gravity when neither birds nor humans require it for survival. Sentience, consciousness and all the rest have no real explainations other than perhaps it just is. The leap from apes to human consciousness remains a mystery. There are gaps in records and evidence. The mind-body problem either remains a problem, or a phenomenon, or a mystery, or a brute fact with no explaination at all.

Similarly, the cosmological problem remains such a mystery. As we've seen, pure reason won't get you there. Exploration, thru logic and reason, of such thoughts about human existence in the cosmos results in a question(s).

As Paul Davies asserts, we were meant to be here. The mystery at the end of the universe is no different that other mysteries as derived from our conscious existence and our way of thinking and our sense of Being.

Nevertheless, I could be satisfied that God is logically necessary and free-will is an illusion. The point of contention might be the definition of the illusion itself. For instance, are the laws of nature already 'out there', or is it a human construct? Is our reasoning absolute? We don't know for sure. If a causal agent is logically necessary, what comprises its Being? Is there a supreme 'Deity' mathmatician, electrical engineer, musician, artist, a person of wrath with a purpose, a sentient creature, etc..

Those are some questions were are left with using our reason to explain parts of that existence. In that sense, the leap I've taken is not obviously absurd. The concept of logical necessity exists from our way of thinking. And so does mystery and paradox. And, for some reason, so does the synthetic apriori.

Jamie_L

At the risk of sidetracking the thread early on, what gives you this idea?

The only self-conscious beings on the planet (humans - depending on how you define self-consious) have expanded to all corners of the planet, surviving in all manner of environments. They have vastly improved their ability to procreate successfully and succeed in almost any competition with other lifeforms.

Admittedly, as stated this is a correlation only. But still... No biological advantage?

Jamie

Jayhawker Soule

Why must this warrant a belief in God(s)?

Jobar

Aerik Von, you are new here, and I want you to know that asking questions of WJ is a fruitless endeavor. Perhaps he honestly thinks he is making sense; however, the fact is that he is not.

I have pretty much condemned him to Rants&Raves- I will move this thread there, and you may continue it there if you wish. Please, do not take this as a reflection upon your own honesty, intelligence, or sincerity. (Oh- an advantage to being in RR&P. When he spouts nonsense, you can freely name it so- we enforce a higher standard of manners here.)